Lani, Binnie and the children had packed and moved by the time Chappy returned from Hawai‘i and were at the airport to meet him when he landed in Auckland. He stayed overnight with his daughter and son-in-law before making the last part of his journey. By the time he arrived, Star Tearoom had had its sign up for a month, and Oriwia had welcomed her customers through the new front door, treating them to tea and cake on opening day.

‘We had a big homecoming celebration for Chappy,’ Oriwia said. ‘Ti and I went to the airport to get him while all our relations crowded into the tearoom to wait. I could’ve done without the celebration, which went on until it was time for me to switch on the ovens. What I really wanted was to be at home with my husband, in our own house. But first things first. We celebrated. I knew there would be many happy days ahead of us.

‘And truly, they were good days. We had each other. I had my tearoom. He had his garden, a much different garden to the one I’d imagined. Chappy did grow flowers, he just didn’t grow ten thousand of them. The rainings and pourings were all in my head.’

Oriwia and Chappy would go to the bakery and tearoom early in the morning. Oriwia would put the bread and pies in the ovens while Chappy went out front to arrange chairs and lay the cloths. The bread and pie part of the business was declining because of competition from large bakeries, but Oriwia was not sorry about that. Now she could concentrate on serving tea and cakes. Once the loaves and pies were in the ovens, she would begin icing and decorating the cakes which had been baked and set to cool the evening before. She would cut and ice lamingtons from the previous day’s sponges and whip up mixtures for slabs, small cakes and fruit loaves.

At nine o’clock, Marianne would arrive and dress the shop window and the glassed-in counter with a display of chocolate, ginger and Neapolitan cakes, Swiss rolls, melting moments, cream puffs and éclairs, peanut brownies, ginger crunch and a variety of scones, pikelets and sandwiches. At ten o’clock she would open the door and return to the counter to serve the first customers of the day. Some wanted cakes and sandwiches to take away. Others would give their orders and take their seats. For these customers, it was Oriwia who would make the teas, prepare the trays and bring them to their tables.